Stuck at 600 ELO

So I’ve been playing chess on and off since I was a kid. There were periods of time where I’d play pretty often and I really loved the game (still do). Granted, there were definitely people who were better than me. Now, I’m in college and I play virtually every day (usually 15|10 minutes). Some of my games are awesome - I feel like I’m at my peak and the engine has me playing at a level of 800-1000 (and sometimes higher). Sometimes, people are absolutely wiping the floor with me (especially when I’m tired or if I’m playing just because I lost the last game and I want to end on a high note). Usually though, I’ve got an accuracy of around 50% and I play at around a 500 level. When I’m white, I run the London system, and when I’m black, I go Petrov’s defense and then take it from there. Again, I really love chess, it’s just frustrating that I’m so far below average for somebody that’s been playing as long and as often as I have. If you’ve got any advice for how to improve, I’d love to hear it.

Try doing the puzzles, helped me out.

I can teach you EXACTLY how to think during the game (opening, middlegame and endgame). Your chess understanding will never be the same and you will improve a lot. I charge $10/h, but if you can’t afford too many lessons, don’t worry. I can teach you a lot in an hour. Here to help if you are interested.

Do we even know the average of where someone should be with that background?

That aside, how long have been playing seriously (in the current phase)?

How much time do you spend on things outside of playing (puzzles, analysis, reading, etc)?

Thanks - I'm at around puzzle level 1000 rn and I try to do them pretty often. I'm getting pretty good at finding checkmates (and most of the puzzles I encounter on this site involve checkmates), but my problems may lie elsewhere...

Good question...I usually go by the skills of the people around me (who seem to be doing better than I am, though I learned how to play when I was a kid and I've been playing on and off since). And it depends on what you consider to be playing seriously. I started playing a lot against the bots last August. I started beating the 1000 level bots, I think, in October and now I can reliably beat the 1200 level bots. I'm stuck on the 1300 level bots. I can beat Nelson because he spams queen attacks like a lunatic, but the other ones give me trouble. I started playing against real people in early February. I don't have too much free time on my hands given my studies, but I have a 1000 level puzzle rating and I try to do at least one every day (more often than not I binge them around three times a week). Maybe I'm not being super efficient about it because chess.com has only been giving me checkmate puzzles. I have "Bobby Fischer teaches chess," and I'm working through it as often as I can but again I don't have a ton of free time. I watch youtube videos occasionally, mainly Gotham Chess, and I spent some cash on the chessly middlegame module as well as the chessable Alex Banzea London system. I used to do a little bit of the modules around every day, but my workload has increased so I've tabled the two courses for now. As for analysis, I use the engine to review my games. It'll show me a blunder, and I'll say to myself, "oh, that was stupid, I missed a fork." Not much else comes of it though.

things that make me break through 600 elo was:

1) know couple basic tactics (pin, skewer, fork, and battery); battery was my main weapon back then, because most of enemy didnt notice/aware that iam build-up a battery against their minor/major piece.

2) do mate in 1 puzzle as many as you can. if you willing, every time you do mate in 1 puzzle, you should count square where the enemy king cant move into.

this exercise may help you to end the game when opportunity occur, and develop chess piece threat awareness(if you count enemy king unsafe square).

luckily, back then i find out phone app called "mate in 1 (chess puzzle)". develop by same people that develop CT-ART 4.0

3) castling every games and do it on board side that have 2 or 3 pawn at 2nd rank

by doing this you put your king at safe place for many turns (most enemy doesnt have proper plan to breaking defense), and your mind can focus on find a way to attack enemy king

4) simplify your chess game and have clear purpose on every of your chess moves

All of that sounds fine.

How many hours a week do you thinknyou spend on chess in total (not including watching videos, which probably don't build skills up)?

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond.....

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Whats the source you got this from? I am kinda interested at looking at this and seeing where people are at

https://www.chess.com/leaderboard/live

scroll down below your profile picture on the right side of the screen, there's a chart showing the average rating, your percentile etc

analyse your games so you don't play the same move next time

1) Loads more tactics. Puzzle ratings are very ”inflated” compared to the other ratings so I’d say if you get your puzzles to around 2000 rating, that is enough to get you to 1000 rapid, maybe a little above, as far as tactical skills are conserned. If necessary, play less in order to do more tactics.

2) Read a good beginner chess book like Pandolfini’s ”Ultimate Guide To Chess” or Seirawan’s ”Play Winning Chess” or both.

3) Don’t spend all too much time studying openings, but try to implement the opening principles and also to realize that openings are about creating an imbalance. When that imbalance is created, you try to play so that the imbalance is to your benefit.

Watching GM's play chess is very helpful. Sitting their playing guess the move to Hikaru's games can help you get ideas for your own games. Particularly when he plays a lot of games at one time and sticks to a specific opening. you see what he does when opponents play different moves in the same position.

To be clear, i'm not recommending you copy his opening but more the general ideas you'll pick up. e.g. battery's, over-defending, pawn storm, importance of pawn structure, converting end games etc. Also helping you look for better moves other than the most obvious.

As Lasker said, 'when you see a good move, look for a better one' - if nothing else it helps you to double check if your opponent can play anything else other than the line/s you've calculated.

I do puzzles for 40 minutes a day. Broken into two segments. 20 minutes using All Themes, so the tactics are random. Then another 20 minutes picking one specific tactic or concept to focus on that. i.e forks or skewers. Then I practice a pawn endgame vs the computer for 5 minutes. Sometimes I'll practice a rook endgame. Just to get endgame basics better. I don't study theory other than the super basic endgame principles. I usually play games 3-4 days out of the week. (10+ minutes control) I also have Daily games going. I like the daily games because you can slow down alot and focus on calculation. Then I watch Hikaru, Gotham chess, or Chess vibes to just learn more or watch better players play. Hope this helps. The most important thing that I have seen that helps the most is the puzzles and practicing endgames over and over. Once or twice a week I will review the openings I use to see if there is anything I'm missing. I also analyze each game I play and take notes in a journal.

im puzzles 3404

To add to my previous comment:

4) Get some annotated games collection books and play through those games. Preferably with a real physical chess set, which slows things down. That way your brain has more time to process the information.

”First Book of Morphy” ”Bobby Fischer’s 60 Memorable games” and a new one I picked up in Amsterdam is ”Max Euwe’s Best Games” by Jan Timman, which seems like an awesome book.

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a respected chess coach and Twitch streamer!  

Here’s more ideas to help you get better.  

-I recommend two books for you: “50 Poison Pieces” and “Queen For A Day: The Girl’s Guide To Chess Mastery.” Both books are available on Amazon.com. Both books are endorsed by chess masters!  

- Check out the 500 puzzles for beginners. These puzzles are unique and cannot be found anywhere else: . These puzzles are endorsed by chess masters! 

-If you are serious about chess, I highly recommend you hiring a chess coach to help you.  

-Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side. Always as, “If I move here, where is my opponent going to move?”. Do this for every single move!  

-Play with a slow time control, such as G/30 so you have plenty of time to think before every move. 

-Beginners tend to move too quickly, so in general, think for at least 10-15 seconds before moving. 

Your job is to never make any silly blunders!

In addition, chess game analysis is a great way to get better since I’ll identify the good and bad moves you made. 

If you are interested in getting your chess game analyzed by me for FREE on my Twitch livestreams, message me your game(s). Getting your game analyzed is a great way to get better.

I livestream every Monday night around 9:30pm PDT, Wednesday night around 8pm PDT, and Friday afternoons around 2pm PDT on Twitch:

1. Try new openings and analyse them.

I see you already have a favourite opening, but why not try other ones? The chess.com openings database will help you out. You never know.

2.Learn how to defend against traps and try not to use them.

I don't know if you use traps, but if you don't, then don't change your habit. Hikaru ( Grandmaster) is not gonna rely on a scholars mate.

If you use traps then gradually decrease the use.

Learn to defend against traps like Wayward Queen Attack and Englund gambit.